Police fail to investigate honor related crimes

Demonstration at Sergels Torg in central Stockholm in memory of Fadime and Pela both murdered because they broke the rules set out by their families. Photo: Scanpix

Despite an increased knowledge of honor related crimes the police often fail to consider all aspects and few investigations lead to trial, according to a new report from the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ).

“The police are pretty bad at seeing the big picture when it comes to the woman’s situation and they don’t interrogate as many people involved as they could,” Emma Ekström, from BRÅ, tells Swedish Television.

The study focuses on 117 police investigations into honor related crimes as well as interviews with police officers, prosecutors and people from different support organizations. Only 16 cases out of those studied came to trial.

“The knowledge and the experience within the police force varies greatly. There is a lot of knowledge on how to investigate honor related crime but it needs improvement and it needs to be spread out through the organization,” Ekström says